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CFLPA wants Guaranteed Contracts

The CFLPA’s senior advisor on labour negotiations believes guaranteed contracts should be a part of the upcoming CBA negotiations.

“I do think guaranteed contracts should be and will be discussed at the bargaining table in terms of the players,” Ken Georgetti said.

Under the current collective bargaining agreement, first year players must play 14 games to secure the entire compensation laid out in the contract. Four-year veterans have their deals guaranteed after 11 games, five-year vets 10 games and six or more, nine games. If a player is released prior to those game stipulations, none of the salary has to be paid by the team.

“The thing I found that’s most different from what I’m used to is the relationship between the players and their employer. It’s unusual in the sense that players can get released for any reason and it’s very difficult to attain any job security and be secure enough to advocate strongly for yourself while you’re vulnerable to those kind of whims of the management,” Georgetti said

think that landscape’s going to change, but the relationship between the players and the league has to change. The players need to have more say in the outcome of their work and they haven’t had very much to date, I must say.”

Contracts are changing in the NFL. Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins signed the first fully guaranteed multi-year contract in NFL history during free agency last March and guaranteed money has increased dramatically even outside the QB position. Defensive lineman Aaron Donald will net over $86 million of the $135 million contract signed last August, over 64 percent of the deal. CFL players want to be treated in the same way and similar to other employees in the country.

“Usually in most of the workplaces in Canada, if you act on behalf of the organization, the association and speak out you’re protected from just cause dismissal, in the CFL unfortunately you’re not. And our experience suggests that some player reps that speak out from time to time find themselves cut from the game and I’m not used to that,” Georgetti said.

Georgetti was brought on by the CFLPA in 2016 because his background in labour law. He is a former president of the Canadian Labour of Congress, the longest serving in history. And Georgetti has more than 35 years of experience in labour relations and been an Order of Canada recipient.

“We need to talk about what a real partnernership is and a real partnernership is sharing both the risk and the rewards. I think the sharing of the risk is disproportionate. And as you can see from the financial sharing of the rewards, it’s abysmal frankly,” Georgetti said

NHL players receive approximately 50 per cent of league revenues while the NBA is at between 49 and 51 per cent. NFL players get between 46.5 and 48 per cent while the MLB is around 50 per cent. It’s clear CFL players receive significantly less than counterparts in other pro sports leagues.

“So it’s having an equitable voice in those conversations around player safety and rules, discussing the future of the game and growth of the game and also the monetary aspects. There’s many pieces to that but a true partnership is being accountable to both sides on all these various levels,” Georgetti said.

“A partnership is being part of conversations starting with the amount of risk that’s taken on the field. If you look at the risk, it’s 100 per cent on the players.”

Run the Ball up the gut around the horn it does not matter. We run we win what is so difficult to understand.

Re: CFLPA wants Guaranteed Contracts

I think the CFLPA probably knows that guaranteed contracts aren't going to happen, but perhaps this allows for a restructuring of deadlines for paying out players for current seasons even if they are cut part way through the season.. Hey, it's a bargaining session; you always ask for more than what you need.

Re: CFLPA wants Guaranteed Contracts

I don't think guaranteed contracts will happen soon...but this garbage of cutting someone the day before a bonus is due is absolute bullsh!t...and needs to have something done about it. Doesn't matter what team does it - it just looks bad. There needs to be some sort of pro rated amount or something along those lines. Granted, the salary cap will need to increase a bit but it would make the league better in the long run.

Just a quick shout out to Mr."Winning isn't everything" for pis*ing away not one but TWO HoF QB's. F*ck you Len and good riddance.

Re: CFLPA wants Guaranteed Contracts

Originally Posted by boydo

I don't think guaranteed contracts will happen soon...but this garbage of cutting someone the day before a bonus is due is absolute bullsh!t...and needs to have something done about it. Doesn't matter what team does it - it just looks bad. There needs to be some sort of pro rated amount or something along those lines. Granted, the salary cap will need to increase a bit but it would make the league better in the long run.

Re: CFLPA wants Guaranteed Contracts

Originally Posted by boydo

I don't think guaranteed contracts will happen soon...but this garbage of cutting someone the day before a bonus is due is absolute bullsh!t...and needs to have something done about it. Doesn't matter what team does it - it just looks bad. There needs to be some sort of pro rated amount or something along those lines. Granted, the salary cap will need to increase a bit but it would make the league better in the long run.

I agree that guaranteed contracts are not going to happen, but having more guaranteed money in contracts certainly seems to be the trend, and like Hugo said, perhaps there is room to move a little on when the contract for the season becomes guaranteed.

The cutting guys before a bonus is something that the players need to have their eyes wide open to when signing and structuring their deal. Those sorts of off-season bonus clauses can be as much about forcing a team to act sooner rather than keeping a player hanging. Henoc Muamba was one of the best at employing them, ensuring that the dates for his bonuses were well in advance of free agency, and if the team wasn't committed enough to pay it to him, he got a chance to get a jump ahead of everyone else hitting the market and create his own bidding war. A player with a March 15 bonus in his contract, only to have the team cut him when other clubs have spent a good amount of their cap is at a real disadvantage. Not only is he less likely to find another opportunity, but he's likely to get a lesser contract as well. From what I recall of Muamba's most recent situation last year, he got one off-season bonus from the Riders, before they cut him in front of the second one.

I wonder if the CFLPA wouldn't be wise to ask that off-season bonuses in player contracts need to be payable prior to Feb 1, or, if there are multiple off-season bonuses in the contract, that the largest of them must be prior to Feb 1. As it stands now, it's relying on the player's agent to do right by them.

There are some that will point to Darian Durant or Nate Coehoorn or one of the other exceptional cases where a player takes the bonus and then retires. Those are rare enough that I don't believe they should be a major factor in driving teams' behaviours. From the player's side though, they need to just change the way that they're looking at those bonuses almost to be a renewing of vows... if the team isn't that into you anymore, then they need to be forced to act on that rather than stringing them along.